Objects within a localized area may be tracked using RFID devices that contain an antenna and a transmitter. These devices are commonly referred to as RFID tags or transponders. Typically, RFID tags remain in a passive state until a reader transmits a signal to the tag. Upon activation, the RFID tag will broadcast its response message.
Typical RFID-based location systems utilize signal strength and range and/or time difference of arrival of the signal at multiple antennae. However, these systems are prone to a number of problems. For example, relying on signal strength can be difficult as the signal strength can fluctuate due to multipath fading and other effects. It is labor intensive and time consuming to construct RF maps to account for these multipath effects, and the RF maps may need to be altered if the environment changes. Time difference of arrival systems are also prone to multipath errors and work better in line-of-sight environments.
Where there are a large number of tags to be identified, any of which may be transmitting at the same time, interference between transmitting tags also poses another problem. With a number of tags transmitting it takes longer to resolve the signal from each of the individual tags.
The use of time difference of arrival systems also requires tight synchronization among all of the antennae. Furthermore, the accuracy of these systems is limited by the accuracy of the measured distance between the antennae on which the time difference of arrival calculation relies on. Reliance on measured distances typically limits the application of these systems to a deployment with static antenna locations. Due to this limitation these systems could not be deployed in an ad hoc manner.
The multipath fading effects and line-of-sight requirements provide limitations on the type of environments in which these traditional systems may be deployed. While these systems may prove satisfactory in a warehouse, they are unable to function in environments that contain a number of surfaces that may reflect an RF signal. For example, the current RFID location systems would have great difficulty locating RFID tags contained within a building from a location outside of that building.
Overcoming the above problems of locating RFID tags opens up a number of new applications. When RFID tags can be located over a greater area and throughout building structures there is difficulty in conveying the RFID tag coordinates in a meaningful way to an end-user of the system. While the tags position can be precisely located relative to the antennae, in situations where there is no time to measure distances relative to the antennae some sort of visual indication is required so that an RFID tag can be located relative to a building structure or other elements in the environment.